What do you do when your job and lifestyle causes you excruciating pain?
Well, if you are Jossi Wells, you just keep going.
The 22-year-old professional freeskier from Wanaka, who crashed out of the New Zealand Freeski Open at Snow Park, near Wanaka, yesterday, has suffered from knee pain since he was about 15 but says it is not likely to make him want to throw in the towel.
"I enjoy it too much to give up. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world."
His training and competition schedule sees him on the slopes about six days a week for most of the year doing at least 20 jumps a day.
Wells said he "kind of messed up" during the slopestyle semifinals yesterday.
"They were pretty minor mistakes but enough to pull me out."
He said it was disappointing to mess up at home, but the upshot was he "got to show off how beautiful this country is" to other pro skiers on the circuit.
"I've been to a lot of places in the world, but this is probably pretty much the most beautiful place in the world."
The slopestyle event was won by Russ Henshaw, of Australia.
The ski competition continues today with the halfpipe event, but Wells said he was unlikely to compete.
"I'm just trying to rest my knees as much as possible, to get ready for the northern hemisphere winter."
He suffers from a condition nicknamed "jumper's knee" in which the tendons running over the knee cap are "pretty much shot" so when he squats, jumps or lands, it causes "excruciating pain".
Though it "kind of hinders my career quite a bit", after living with it for seven years, he had learned to manage it.
